Caseville gives pink slips to two workers

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, January 12, 2004

Council did act, laying off two full-time employees, one from the police department and one from the Department of Public Works (DPW) at its regular meeting on Monday.

The motion, which was added to the agenda at the start of the meeting, dictated the layoffs be complete by no later than midnight Saturday, Jan. 17.

Hengy said the village had already spent $120,000 on a lake intake and will have to spend $240,000 on repairs to the water tower. This was on top of discussions of raising sewer rates and dictating 2 mills for street repairs.

Insurance for the two employees only could come to $25,000, Hengy said. He said the total pay of the two workers would come to $100,000.

During discussions, council member Francis Beadle said he didn't think it was fair for council members to be getting a raise while they would be laying off full-time employees.

"That's why I put that motion in there," he said.

Earlier in the meeting, Beadle had made a motion to reduce pay of council members to $25 per meeting and $30 for the president.

Nobody seconded the motion and it died.

Council members are scheduled to see an increase in their pay after the March elections. The compensation for council members was raised to $50 per meeting and the president to $60 per meeting in March of 2002.

Council member Judith Mendelsohn said she did not second Beadle's motion because she felt she could not because she refuses her wages for being a council member.

"Would this be for just the few slow months, or would they be permanent layoffs?" Mendelsohn asked Hengy.

He said that issue would be for the future council to decide.

The layoffs were approved 3-2.

After a hesitation, Mendelsohn voted no. Wayne Hazzard also voted no. Beadle also hesitated on his vote and then said yes. Hengy and Perry also voted yes.

Office Administrator Forrest Williams said he would be meeting with Perry today to finalize which two employees would be given pink slips. He said Monday night, the union contract has a specified order of who would be laid off.

During final council comments, many council members spoke to the layoffs.

"I hate to lay anyone off, but we are so far in the hole, we're going to have to do something," Beadle said.

Mendelsohn said she felt very bad for the layoffs and they were inappropriate at the time.

Perry said both the county and state are going through layoffs, too, and the only way they could have avoided them was to raise taxes.

Perry also defended the raise for council members saying this will be their first raise in 15 years.

Hengy turned to talking about the police department. He said he didn't understand how the township could spend $120,000 on their police department and the budget for the village was up over $200,000.

The topic of having three full-time police officers has been long debated with council and members of the public.

Earlier in the meeting, Hengy had pointed to the annual numbers from the police department of 153 runs outside of the township.

Police Chief Jamie Learman said 117 of those runs were assists and 32 of the runs were emergencies in Caseville Township.

Village President Clyde Campbell has voiced his support of having a smaller police department in the past, and his opinion did not change.

"I think you did a good thing today," he said referring to reducing the police department to two officers.

Budget talks will continue next week as council set a public hearing for 5:15 p.m. for the proposed budget.